A friend of mine said she just joined the “A Page a Day” group on Facebook. She’s a fellow ‘writer-at-heart’ who is unable to really write because she’s focused on her work. There are a lot of writers out there who do feel constricted by their jobs and everyday life to really write properly. I know get really jealous when I see people churn out one quality blog post after another. I also meet a lot of friends and colleagues who are frustrated by the fact that they cannot concentrate to write for themselves.
Then there’s another set of folks who have always told me that they hate to write. Interestingly, these folks tend to be younger, and are almost at the start of their careers. I usually cringe when I hear someone say they really don’t like writing and that they want to do as little writing as possible. If I hear this in an interview the resume goes directly to the rejected pile.read more

One of my favorite shows I watch on TV is Master Chef Australia. In one of the episodes I had watched, teams were paired into twos and were tasked to cook the same dish that looks and tastes the same, with the twist that they were not able to taste or see each other’s dishes until the time they were judged.read more

As leaders and those who are in positions to ask for more resources, we tend to take the easy route and just ask for them. Sometimes we make the unavailability of resources to be a hinderance to our jobs. Sometimes we make that an excuse for poor execution or even poor quality of service.
As individuals we say to our bosses, “I’m not getting paid enough to do all this.” As managers we say, “We need to hire more people, we need better infrastructure, we need this, and we need that.” Naturally, as consumers so driven in an ever competitive world, having more means better status — how many time have we counted the size of the team we are managing but not the revenue that we are generating?read more

A couple of months ago I started helping friends revamp their CVs and LinkedIn profiles. 80% of them got a job they wanted right after the revamp. I didn’t do anything except advise them with a bit of targeted messaging, and highlights in their achievements. After revamping their CV, I told them how to go about applying it on LinkedIn.read more

As professional communicators, we always have stories to tell. Whether it be stories of our clients, or stories about us, but have you ever used stories to lead your team? I have many times and it works. I tell stories that inspire me and keep me going.read more

“Never stop learning,” is one of my mottos that drive who I am. Being in the digital world there’s always a new thing to learn. That’s why I love it so much that I’ve fallen into a profession that’ll get me to do just that. Sometimes though, no matter how much of an autodidact I’ve been, I still doubt how much knowledge I actually have. Plus I like to be secure in thinking I know just a bit more. (I know, I’m such a geek.) I also use learning opportunities to check what I’ve learned is true.read more

It has no respect for the pristine environment it was shot in. It has no ‘green’ value system, and it assumes, even encourages you bring a soap bar to a perfectly natural environment. I am also really surprised by Leo Burnett’s comments on it on Brand Equity. The commercial scored a surprising 5.5 on the Leo Burnett 7+ ranking system. But yes, it probably appeals to the youth looking for adventure and repeatedly saying the word, ‘awesome’. It just doesn’t make sense to me to carry bars of soap into clean, green, refreshing natural settings. If we did that, those places won’t exists any more.read more